New self-cleaning solar panel technology could increase power output by over 40 percent. (Source: U.S. Air Force)

Technology is adapted from NASA technology used on Mars missions

When
you think of hot climates, images of deserts often pop into your
mind. Indeed, many of the world's sunniest regions (near the
equator) are also home to large deserts. Those deserts would
seem to be an ideal place to deploy solar
installations -- they're hit by intense sunlight, they're
relatively foliage-free for easy installation, and they don't have
high concentrations of wildlife that would be
impacted.

Now a team of researchers led by MIT professor
Malay K. Mazumder, Ph.D has come
up with a solution -- use automated cleaning technology
developed for missions to Mars.

The technology involves first
using a transparent, electrically sensitive material deposited on
glass or a transparent plastic sheet covering the panels.
Sensors monitor the levels of deposited dust on the panel. When
the dust levels get too high, a charge is applied to the coating and
the dust is physically move across the panel via the charge and
dumped off the edges.

The procedure uses a minimal amount of
energy, making it a viable cleaning solution. It removes 90
percent of dust, greatly improving power output. And best of
all, the technology has already been stress tested by NASA
space probes and rovers under the harsh Martian
climate.

Professor Mazumder comments, "We think our
self-cleaning panels used in areas of high dust and particulate
pollutant concentrations will highly benefit the systems' solar
energy output. Our technology can be used in both small- and
large-scale photovoltaic systems. To our knowledge, this is the only
technology for automatic dust cleaning that doesn't require water or
mechanical movement."

United States, Spain, Germany, the
Middle East, Australia, and India all are home to large scale solar
installations. Many of these installations are in regions where
water is scarce, making water-based cleaning problematic.
Professor Mazumder elaborates, "A dust layer of one-seventh of
an ounce per square yard decreases solar power conversion by 40
percent. In Arizona, dust is deposited each month at about 4
times that amount. Deposition rates are even higher in the Middle
East, Australia, and India."

The technology already has a
huge potential market; the current solar
panel industry is a $24B USD market.

And Professor
Mazumder hopes that market will only grow larger as more countries
embrace solar energy. He states, "Less than 0.04 percent
of global energy production is derived from solar panels, but if only
four percent of the world's deserts were dedicated to solar power
harvesting, our energy needs could be completely met worldwide. This
self-cleaning technology can play an important role."

The
new technology may prove the catalyst to help convince nations to go
ahead with such installations, as it should help to substantially
reduce the per
kilowatt-hour cost of solar power.

The new technology was
presented by Professor Mazumder and his collaborators from NASA at
the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
The ACS is a nonprofit group and the world's largest scientific
society. Chartered by the U.S. Congress, the ACS is responsible
for many chemistry peer-reviewed journals and conferences.